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Jan 20, 2024

Demand for EV mineral skyrockets, leaving miners largely overlooked

Correspondent Rachel Chason and photographer Ilan Godfrey logged more than 1,200

Correspondent Rachel Chason and photographer Ilan Godfrey logged more than 1,200 miles driving across South Africa, from remote mining towns in the Kalahari Desert to industrial sites in the northeast, to investigate conditions in the manganese industry. Chason is The Washington Post's West Africa bureau chief, based in Dakar, Senegal, with responsibilities stretching from the Sahel to southern Africa. Godfrey, based in Johannesburg, focuses on environmental forces shaping his home country.

HOTAZEL, South Africa — Dirk Jooste had never been a big drinker. But when he showed up for his job as an electrician at a manganese mine in the Kalahari Desert one Monday morning, he was trembling so much that his supervisor asked him if he was "babalas," or hung over.

Jooste, then in his early 50s, soon lost the ability to keep his balance, walk straight and remember things as basic as the TV show he’d seen the night before, he recounted more than a decade later. Eventually, a doctor delivered news that shocked Jooste: The powdery black manganese dust he’d worked with each day for years appeared to have caused irreversible poisoning.

As demand for electric vehicles has soared in recent years, automakers have rapidly turned to manganese, a common and relatively inexpensive mineral that is already used in about half of rechargeable batteries and is seen as key to making supply chains more reliable and cars more affordable. The industry's demand for manganese has quintupled over the past five years, and analysts predict it could increase a further ninefold by 2030.

For years, however, manganese has taken a toll on the health of those who mine and process it, according to scientific research that shows that high-level exposure can be toxic, causing a spectrum of neurological harm. In South Africa, home to the world's biggest manganese reserves, interviews with dozens of current and former employees in mines and smelters, as well as with doctors and researchers, underscore the peril.

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Amid the new global fervor for manganese, however, the industry has shown little consideration of these occupational risks, according to analysts who focus on the energy transition.

The shift to EVs already figures prominently in the global battle against climate change, and that transition is stoking demand for a wide range of minerals used in manufacturing them, such as manganese, cobalt, lithium and nickel. To run, EVs typically require six times the mineral input of conventional vehicles, as measured by weight, excluding steel and aluminum. But there remains little recognition of the harm that the extraction and processing of such minerals could have on workers and surrounding communities.

Current and retired manganese miners in the remote Kalahari Desert said their memories have declined after years of working in the mines, while former smelter workers found themselves unable to walk a straight line. One recent study found that 26 percent of manganese miners studied in Hotazel, the Northern Cape mining town where Jooste worked, exhibited symptoms similar to those of Parkinson's disease. Many current and former miners said they were never warned about the potential dangers of exposure. Former miners and smelter workers who raised concerns said they were ignored.

A series unearthing the unintended consequences of securing the metals needed to build and power electric vehicles

Analysts who closely follow the EV industry note that there has been little discussion among automakers and their suppliers about the potential health hazards, adding that the companies are mostly concerned about whether there is enough high-purity manganese — which is specifically required for EV batteries — to meet demand. Tesla, Ford and Chevrolet, which sold the most-popular EVs in the United States last year, did not respond to requests for comment.

Aloys d’Harambure, executive director of the International Manganese Institute, which represents the manganese industry, agreed that excess exposure to the mineral can lead to irreversible neurological damage that is associated with the disease known as manganism. But, he added, "thanks to current technologies and labor regulations, as well as measures on safety matters, manganism is rarely seen today." He said the use of manganese in EV batteries is still such a small part of the overall market — the vast majority of manganese goes toward steel — that "we have not yet seen any increased discussion or additional research on the topic of potential health impacts of high-purity manganese."

The issue is especially urgent in South Africa, which has seen its production of manganese increase by more than one-third since 2017 and, as the world's largest producer, now accounts for about 36 percent of the global total, followed by Gabon and Australia.

South32 and Assmang, two major manganese mining companies in South Africa, said their risk-mitigation strategies are informed by research on the potential health effects of exposure to manganese dust.

Doctors and medical researchers agree that protecting human health will take greater recognition of the threat and more vigilance than in the past, including rigorous monitoring, protective gear and proactive medical surveillance programs.

Jooste, for one, has little confidence. Sitting in his doctor's office, Jooste, now 65, said he fears that South Africa is repeating its ugly history with asbestos mining, which continued for years after the health risks to workers and nearby communities were known.

"How long is it going to take until people start realizing what is happening?" Jooste said of manganese, his voice rising in irritation. "Another 30 or 40 years? Must we wait until people start dying?"

As far back as 1837, a Scottish physician, John Couper, detailed the suffering of workers exposed to manganese at a bleach factory outside Glasgow. He reported men staggering after losing strength in their legs and struggling to speak clearly, their face muscles paralyzed.

As more studies were done on the condition that became known as manganism, researchers recorded other symptoms, including tremors and emotional instability, sometimes termed "manganese madness." They determined that manganese poisoning occurs when the substance is inhaled or ingested, gets into the bloodstream and is deposited in the basal ganglia, the part of the brain that controls movement and balance.

Thanks to improvements in workplace conditions in recent decades, full-blown manganism is now rare, researchers say. What is more common, they say, are subtle symptoms including slowness of movement, stiffness in joints, irritability and forgetfulness, all of which can be difficult to diagnose. Tomás R. Guilarte, a professor of environmental health sciences at Florida International University, said that although the links between high manganese exposure and toxicity are clear, the genetics that make some people more vulnerable still need to be studied.

In Hotazel, a town surrounded by giant mines filled with dark gray manganese ore, neurologist Brad Racette examined 187 manganese miners, whose average age was 42. Racette, chair of neurology at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona, found that a quarter of these miners experienced Parkinsonian symptoms, such as abnormally stiff and slow movement. His team, which conducted the study between 2010 and 2014, also found that these symptoms were associated with a lower quality of life, as reported by the workers in surveys.

"We are still peeling the layers off this onion," Racette said. "My question at this point is how low the [exposure] levels need to go before they are safe."

Studies of workers at an Italian plant producing manganese alloys for steelmaking in the late 1990s also found that they exhibited unusual slowness of movement and loss of balance, said Roberto Lucchini, a professor of occupational and environmental health at Florida International University. Lucchini, who is still studying those workers, said that over the years they have developed relatively high levels of a type of plaque buildup in the brain that is often an indicator for Alzheimer's disease.

He and other researchers said legal exposure levels remain far too high in much of the world, including South Africa. Studies in Italy, Taiwan, Bangladesh and Ohio have highlighted the potential danger even of exposures below the legal limits.

Because EV batteries require high-purity manganese, Lucchini said, there is likely to be an even greater threat in refineries than in mines, where the dust is coarser and thus less likely to reach the brain directly.

"This," Lucchini said, "is a new frontier."

After 10-hour workdays at the massive open-pit mine, Jooste said, he would return to his house and find his nose, teeth and even tongue covered in fine black dust. "It was all black," said Jooste, who worked as a contractor blowing the dust out of broken truck air conditioners at the Mamatwan mine. "Everything."

After that long-ago day when his supervisor asked if he had a hangover, Jooste headed to the clinic at the mine, which was then owned by the Australian mining giant BHP Billiton and later spun off with other operations under the corporate name South32. He said the doctor diagnosed him with Parkinson's disease.

But Jooste, a tall man with a shock of gray hair, noticed that some of his symptoms weren't identical to those associated with Parkinson's. When another doctor prescribed medication for Parkinson's, it didn't work.

Eventually, Jooste landed in the office of Tidu van der Merwe, an occupational health doctor in the nearby mining town of Kathu. Earlier in his career, van der Merwe had presciently warned about hazardous conditions at a manganese smelting plant, where a spate of suspected manganism cases were later reported. He knew that Jooste's job at the mine had entailed high exposure — he’d worn only a thin mask — and recognized that his symptoms mirrored many in the medical literature. He diagnosed Jooste with manganism.

More than a decade later, Jooste's hand-eye coordination has become so bad that he has trouble handing his wife a cup of coffee without spilling it. "This is no life," said Jooste, whose case was first reported last year by Carte Blanche, an investigative outlet in South Africa.

A spokesman for South32 declined to comment on individual cases but said in a statement that the company takes "proactive steps to reduce the risk by applying controls in line with international best practice," including the use of protective equipment for certain work groups, dust-suppression systems, and ventilation in underground mines. The spokesman said that if workers display "any symptoms of occupational illness, we take it very seriously," and that after screening, they would be sent for medical evaluation.

While science is clear about the potential peril posed by manganese, the extent of the harm being done to workers in South Africa remains less certain, in part because there is so little monitoring and so little research. Jaco Cilliers, a neurologist in Bloemfontein, said that screening for manganese poisoning is rare and that when he meets with his medical colleagues, it is "not something that gets talked about."

Ewert Bohnen, a doctor whose firm is on contract with the companies to run health clinics at five manganese mines in the Northern Cape, said he's had no suspected manganese poisoning cases over 15 years. The majority of cases he's heard about, he said, come from smelters, which primarily process manganese for steelmaking.

In towns near the mines, many other doctors declined to talk to reporters about manganese. A doctor at Assmang Black Rock mine hung up when a reporter said why she was calling. Four occupational health doctors in Kuruman, who, according to their receptionist, treated "lots" of manganese miners, declined to comment. A doctor in Hotazel said in a brief phone interview that he’d had one manganism patient, who died, but the doctor declined to meet, saying questions should be directed to the mines.

Jonathan Myers, formerly a professor of occupational health at the University of Cape Town, said he carried out a study in the Northern Cape two decades ago that found no adverse neurological effects of manganese exposure in more than 400 active miners.

Van der Merwe said he worries that cases may be going unnoticed because of differences in language and culture, especially between management and medical staff on one hand and Black miners, who have historically been the backbone of South Africa's mining industry, on the other.

"I’m sticking my neck out talking about this," he said, adding that fear of the mining companies is widespread.

In two villages near the mines, dozens of former miners, all Black and some wearing their old mining uniforms, recounted their health ailments to visiting reporters at informal community center meetings. Some of the former miners cited the same subtle symptoms that researchers have identified, and many said they had sought medical help but run into dead ends. They told of doctors who said the ailments could be related to manganese but who declined to provide official diagnoses.

"There is no clarity," said Looseboy Picoentsi, 62, in Ga-Mopedi village, who added that his doctor told him his sharp decline in memory could be related to manganese. But when Picoentsi tried to get his health records from the mine where he’d worked, he was told they didn't have them anymore.

Lekgetho Mosimaneotsile, 64, also of Ga-Mopedi, had worked at Assmang's manganese mine for 27 years, many of them spent blowing manganese dust out of storerooms. He said he started experiencing chest pains and forgetting things while he was still working in the mine. Now, he said, his memory is so bad that when he leaves his house to get something, he’ll forget what it was. Sometimes when he wakes up in the morning, he can't stop his body from trembling.

A spokeswoman for Assmang said it conducts a medical surveillance program and warns employees about the potential dangers of manganese exposure. The spokeswoman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing company policy, said there have been no cases of manganese poisoning at Assmang's mines.

In one of the Hotazel neighborhoods where current miners live in housing subsidized by the companies, several complained of memory loss and other ailments. Elias Gasejewe, 53, who has worked in an underground manganese mine since 2005, said he's been forgetting things for years and feels like his mind works more slowly than it once did. Although the mining company encourages workers to wear masks, he said, he still sees the black dust mixed in his mucus.

Ernest Hendrik, 53, has worked in the same underground mine, and also said he suffers from memory loss, as well as joint stiffness and difficulty with coordination. He said he knows many miners who have fallen ill, but often after they retire.

When Boipelo Sekwe, a current miner, was approached by reporters and asked whether she had any health concerns, she was in the middle of celebrating her 48th birthday. She paused from dancing to Afrobeats music and drinking beer and responded: "We forget stuff. One hundred percent of us forget stuff."

Ezekiel Makhanja's questions started in the early 2000s when he noticed his co-workers at a manganese smelting plant in Meyerton, outside Johannesburg, falling sick. Makhanja, who worked in the smelter's lab, visited the medical clinic and asked the nurses: "What's going on here?"

That question would be at the heart of a years-long effort by workers at two smelters to get the mining giants that owned them to acknowledge the peril posed by manganese.

At the Samancor plant where Makhanja worked, then owned by BHP Billiton and now by South32, five workers who doctors said had developed manganism ultimately received settlements from BHP Billiton. Those workers were all White, held supervisory positions and exhibited "severe and extreme" symptoms, said Richard Spoor, a lawyer who represented them. The companies did not respond to requests for comment about the settlements.

Makhanja and hundreds of his co-workers, mostly Black employees who were laid off in the early 2000s, received nothing. Spoor said his attempts to get settlements for many of those workers were stymied because doctors provided them official diagnoses only in the most obvious cases.

Makhanja, now 59, is mostly confined to his bed these days. Struggling to speak, he said it's been a long time since he could walk without falling down. He sweats profusely at night. He shakes and forgets things. He said it was after his friends and co-workers — some of them in their 30s and 40s — started dying that he realized the answer to the question he’d asked at the clinic: "This is poison."

At a smelter outside Durban owned by the Assmang mining company, Spoor helped 10 workers diagnosed with manganese poisoning get payments from the government agency responsible for compensating people injured on the job.

An inquiry by South Africa's Labor Department into the Durban plant concluded that Assmang had created a hazardous working environment and had failed to warn workers about potential dangers, according to a 2010 report by the department's inspector. The agency recommended, in part, that exposure limits be reduced to below the legal threshold, which the inspector found was "not safe enough."

The Assmang spokeswoman said the company was not aware of the inquiry's conclusions and disputed the manganism diagnoses, while acknowledging that the workers had been permanently disabled.

The Manganese Metal Co.'s refinery in Mbombela sits just across from the famed Crocodile River leading into Kruger National Park, the plant's black machinery contrasting with the surrounding green hills. The company, which also produces material for welding rods and ship propellers, among other products, is one of only a few outside China making the high-purity manganese needed for EV batteries. Here, ore from the Kalahari is not smelted but rather dissolved in massive purple vats of sulfate solution, then electrified to produce a high-purity metal that will later be converted after it leaves the plant into the sulfate form required by battery cathode precursor makers.

During a tour arranged for reporters, signs reminding workers to wear masks and protective ear coverings abounded. Employees had on long sleeves and long pants. Hannes Raath, the doctor who has run MMC's occupational health clinic for the past 22 years, said workers wear monitors to ensure that the amount of dust is within safe limits. In some of the places with the highest concentrations of manganese dust, there were few employees to be found.

Raath said he has seen five to seven manganism cases during his time at the refinery, but none in recent years. He said that's because the company has put a priority on medical surveillance, including neurological screenings and follow-up MRIs if needed.

Chief executive Louis Nel said the company has taken steps to reduce risk as much as possible, including implementing safety procedures and providing workers with protective gear. But he acknowledged that some risk is inevitable. Indeed, near the furnaces where manganese is dried, black dust particles coated a reporter's phone screen. But Nel said the company has tried to "engineer out as much of the risk as we can."

It remains unclear how seriously the wider industry is taking the danger. Analysts at four research and consulting firms that follow the EV and minerals sectors said that risk to manganese workers is rarely a topic of discussion among automakers, suppliers and investors.

"The focus is on how to meet demand in a way that is cost-beneficial," said Victoria Hugill, a battery research analyst with Rho Motion. "The more worker-focused questions and concerns are lower on the food chain."

Sam Jaffe, vice president of battery storage at E Source, another consulting and research firm, said the neurological risks posed by manganese were "not at all" on his radar. He noted that it is particularly difficult to assess the hazards of producing high-purity manganese because so many of the refineries are in China. Likewise, d’Harambure, of the International Manganese Institute, noted that more than 95 percent of refined manganese is produced in China, where "the access to information on worker exposure, protective measures taken by producers, and possible environmental and community impacts is extremely limited."

Wei Zheng, a health science professor at Purdue University in Indiana, has been studying manganese production in China for decades. He recalled watching workers at a refinery in Guizhou province who were producing high-purity manganese for a variety of uses, including rechargeable batteries, remove their protective gear as they walked into the plant, choosing comfort over safety.

Zheng, who visited the refinery in Guizhou multiple times, said the industry needs to reckon not just with the health concerns of workers but also with the wider environmental impacts of expanding manganese mines and processing facilities.

"It's about families, neighbors and communities," Zheng said. "It's not just about the workers. It's about everyone surrounding the workers."

Reporting by Rachel Chason. Cate Brown in Washington; Hlengiwe Motaung in Meyerton, South Africa; Reginald Witbooi in the Northern Cape; and Pei-Lin Wu in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this report. Photography by Ilan Godfrey.

Design by Lucy Naland. Development by Irfan Uraizee. Graphic by Hannah Dormido. Data analysis by Steven Rich. Research by Cate Brown.

Alan Sipress was the lead editor. Editing by Courtney Kan, Vanessa H. Larson, Olivier Laurent, Joe Moore and Martha Murdock.

Additional support from Steven Bohner, Matt Clough, David Dombrowski, Stephanie Hays, Gwen Milder, Sarah Murray, Andrea Platten and Erica Snow.

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As the global demand for electric cars begins to outpace the demand for gas-powered cars, Washington Post reporters set out to investigate the unintended consequences of a global EV boom. This series explores the impact of securing the minerals needed to build and power electric vehicles on local communities, workers and the environment.